FALL MOVIE PREVIEW: From 'Stronger' to 'Justice League' and everything in between

Saturday

Sep 9, 2017 at 6:30 AM

Among the plethora of films opening between now and Thanksgiving, two have Boston ties: “Stronger,” the fact-based story of marathon bombing victim Jeff Bauman, and “Professor Marston & the Wonder Women,” the true story of Harvard psychologist William Moulton Marston.

By Al Alexander/For The Patriot Ledger

After one of the worst summer box offices in years, it’s obvious Hollywood is doing something wrong. Too many sequels, too many men in leotards and too many by-the-numbers toons. So the suits would like nothing better than to lay a big, wet make-up kiss on us with a fall movie schedule alleviating a lot of those problems.

Yes, there are some flicks carrying a summer stench, like the “Daddy’s Home” sequel and “My Little Pony” movie, but for every one of those there are a dozen others with solid potential, including a handful eager to knock “Dunkirk” off its No. 1 Oscar perch. Don’t believe it? Just look at the stacked – and I mean stacked – weekend of Sept. 22, featuring four legit Oscar contenders.

Among the plethora of films opening between now and Thanksgiving, two have Boston ties: “Stronger,” the fact-based story of marathon bombing victim Jeff Bauman, and “Professor Marston & the Wonder Women,” the true story of Harvard psychologist William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman. The rest of the schedule features the usual array of biopics, thrillers, courtroom dramas and, for the fan boys, “Thor: Ragnarok” and the long-, long-, long-anticipated “Justice League.”

The potential is certainly there. Now it’s up to Hollywood to put up or shut up. So to get you ready, here’s a rundown of the fall’s most prominent movies, beginning with:

AFTER “NOAH” Darren Aronofsky attempts to right the ship with a tense, psychological thriller about a couple (Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem) finding their home under siege by strangers. Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer co-star.

Sept. 22

STRONGER David Gordon Green seeks to go where Peter Berg failed in paying tribute to the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing. One thing on his side is that “Stronger” is a far more intimate story, chronicling the heroic fight put up by Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal), the Chelmsford man who lost both legs in the explosion. Another plus is that Joe Pollono’s script is based on Bauman’s best-selling memoir.

THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE The latest addition to the LEGO universe features the usual combination of sass and social satire, only this time samurais battle dragons, snake men and a once-banished warlord seeking to return to power.

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and the gang are all back for this sequel in which the world’s most discrete and nattily dressed spy agency does battle with the formidable Statesman and its thirst for world domination. Welcoming newcomers Julianne Moore and Halle Berry is series director Matthew Vaughn.

BATTLE OF THE SEXES Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the directors of “Little Miss Sunshine,” take us on another long, strange trip, this time on the promotional tour preceding the infamous 1973 Battle of the Sexes tennis match pitting Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) against bombastic Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). But the script by Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy digs deeper by examining the rivals’ equally tumultuous personal lives.

YEAR BY THE SEA After 30 years as a wife and mother, a woman (Karen Allen) opts to spend a year alone on Cape Cod, where she hopes to discover who she really is.

Sept. 29

AMERICAN MADE Tom Cruise reunites with his “Edge of Tomorrow” director, Doug Liman, for a fact-based tale about an airline pilot being enticed by the CIA to provide reconnaissance over Central America as part of what would become the Iran-Contra scandal.

FLATLINERS Is there life after death? That’s what five cocky med students take turns proving by stopping each other’s hearts long enough to experience death before being brought back to life. If the plot sounds familiar it’s because it’s a remake of a 1990 thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland; his then girlfriend, Julia Roberts; and Kevin Bacon. Warning: Don’t practice this at home.

VICTORIA AND ABDUL Judi Dench won an Oscar nod for her stunning portrayal of the widowed Queen Victoria in “Mrs. Brown.” Now, 20 years later, she dons her royal highness’ crown again to play her in a depiction of the queen’s friendship with Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), an Indian clerk. Stephen Frears (“The Queen”) directs.

Oct. 6

BLADE RUNNER 2049 In the long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s cult classic, Ryan Gosling takes over the lead role as Officer K, who sets out to find the former blade runner, Rick Deckard (first film star Harrison Ford), in time to expose the secrets threatening what little of civil society remains. Denis Villeneuve directs.

MY LITTLE PONY: THE MOVIE In the first movie based on the popular kids novel, Ponyville is threatened and it’s up to Rainbow Dash and her friends to bring an end to it.

PROFESSOR MARSTON & THE WONDER WOMEN Writer-director Angela Robinson tells the true story of Harvard psychologist William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) and the three women in his life: his comic book creation, Wonder Woman; his wife (Rebecca Hall); and his mistress (Bella Heathcote).

ONLY THE BRAVE Josh Brolin and Taylor Kitsch star in the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, the 20 specially trained Prescott, Ariz., firefighters who suffered an unimaginable tragedy in the summer of 2013. Joseph Kosinski (the upcoming “Top Gun”) directs.

THE KING’S CHOICE The title says it all, as the ruler of Norway (Jesper Christensen) is presented an ultimatum by the Nazis: Accept it and live, or reject it and die. His final choice may surprise you.

BOO 2! A MADEA HALLOWEEN The verdict is in: You either hate Tyler Perry’s Madea, or you love her. If you’re in the latter group, you can expect more of the same as she spends the night in a haunted campground.

LEATHERFACE In this prequel to “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” a teenaged Leatherface escapes a mental institution, taking a young nurse hostage and dragging her on a road trip to hell.

Oct. 27

SUBURBICON George Clooney returns to the director’s chair to helm a timely critique of the fallacy of the suburban myth. It stars Matt Damon as a husband and father, who in the summer of 1959 runs smack into the hypocrisy lurking beneath the fine-trimmed lawns of suburbia. Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac co-star.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE Middling actor Jason Hall (“American Sniper”) tries to make a go of it as a director by helming yet another tale of shell-shocked Iraq vets struggling to readapt to life in the States. Miles Teller stars.

JIGSAW Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), long thought dead, is actually alive and ready to return to his murdering ways.

WONDERSTRUCK Brian Selznick adapts his acclaimed novel “Ben and Rose,” about two deaf children from different eras embarking on journeys to fulfill dreams of a better, more mind-blowing life. Todd Haynes directs.

Also opening in October: “The Paris Opera” and “120 Beats Per Minute.”

Nov. 3

THOR: RAGNAROK It’s hammer time for Thor (Chris Hemsworth), as he suffers beatdowns by all sorts of threats, the least of whom is old frenemy the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). And wouldn’t you know it? Someone has stolen his hammer. Taika Waititi (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”) directs.

A BAD MOM’S CHRISTMAS “Bad Moms” was so good the studio rushed a sequel in which the randy moms (Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn) encounter the only thing worse than Gwendolyn – holiday preparations. And making it worse are their moms (Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski and Cheryl Hines). Jon Lucas and Scott Moore return as writer-directors.

BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL In a drama eerily similar to Luc Besson’s “The Professional,” a murderous samurai seeks atonement after coming to the rescue of a young girl he feels obligated to protect after her family is slaughtered.

Nov. 10

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI A strong cast brightens Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic tale of a Missouri woman (Frances McDormand) who paints three billboards with disparaging missives about the town’s beloved police chief (Woody Harrelson), setting off an escalating feud between her and the cops. Sam Rockwell and Abbie Cornish co-star.

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Kenneth Branagh directs and stars in a remake of the Agatha Christie classic about detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) investigating the murder of an American tycoon aboard the famous luxury train. Johnny Depp, Judi Dench and Michelle Pfeiffer co-star.

LAST FLAG FLYING Three Vietnam vets (Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne) reunite in 2003 for a very solemn reason: To bury a son killed in the Iraq War. “Boyhood’s” Richard Linklater writes and directs.

DADDY’S HOME 2 From the land of unwanted sequels comes this follow-up to 2015’s insipid “Daddy’s Home.” Joining Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell this time out are the men playing their dads (Mel Gibson and John Lithgow).

ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ “Nightcrawler” writer-director Dan Gilroy puts Denzel Washington to work as an idealistic defense lawyer whose beliefs are put to the test when he’s recruited by a corporate firm.

DINA An eccentric woman (Dina Buno) and a Walmart greeter (Scott Levin) embark on a most unusual romance.

WONDER Stephen Chbosky, the writer-director of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” answers the call to adapt R.J. Palacio’s best-seller about a disfigured little boy (Jacob Tremblay) overcoming his handicap to become a hero among his classmates. Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson play the child’s parents.

GOD’S OWN COUNTRY Writer-director Francis Lee makes his feature-film debut with an erotic drama about a young Yorkshire farmer (Josh O’Connor) who changes his reckless ways after he falls for a migrant sheep shearer (Alec Secareanu).

THE STAR If you ever yearned to see the Nativity from the perspective of the animals, your camel has just come via this evangelical-oriented animation. Timothy Reckart directs.

LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig makes her writing-directing debut with the acclaimed story of a Sacramento woman (Saorise Ronan) fighting not to be like her eccentric, opinionated mother (Laurie Metcalf), who works tirelessly as a nurse to take care of her family after her husband (Tracy Letts) loses his job.

Nov. 22

COCO In another ethnically tinged musical from Disney-Pixar, the makers of “Moana,” newcomer Anthony Gonzalez provides the voice of Miguel, a man who defies his family’s ban on music to seek his fate in the colorful, decadent Land of the Dead. Along the way, he meets a trickster (Gael Garcia Bernal), who helps him discover why his family is freaked by music.

MOLLY’S GAME Aaron Sorkin, the writer-director of “Steve Jobs,” takes on another real-life subject in Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), a beautiful Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade. Eventually, she’s busted and it’s up to Idris Elba to spring her.

DARKEST HOUR The second of this year’s Winston Churchill biopics finds Gary Oldman inheriting the role of the Bulldog and facing his greatest challenge – whether to sign a peace treaty with the Nazis – mere days after becoming prime minister. Joe Wright (“Atonement”) directs and Anthony McCarten (“The Theory of Everything”) provides the script.

THE BREADWINNER If you’re not cuckoo for “Coco,” this far more cerebral animation (from the studio behind the Oscar-nominated “The Secret of the Kells” and “Song of the Sea”) should do the trick. It’s about a 12-year-old Afghan girl who pretends to be a boy so she can earn money for her family and infiltrate the Taliban, which has taken her father prisoner.